America, Crime, and Driving: COURT RULES VICTIMS
 CAN SUE GUN MAKERS
 Connecticut Supreme Court says
 Remington can be sued over how it
 marketed rifle used at Sandy Hook
 Unbiased
 America
BREAKING NEWS: CONNECTICUT SUPREME COURT RULES GUN MAKER CAN BE SUED OVER SANDY HOOK SHOOTING
by Kevin Ryan

In a very high stakes lawsuit for both gun companies and gun-control advocates, Connecticut’s Supreme Court has ruled that gun maker Remington can be sued over how it marketed the Bushmaster rifle, which was used to kill 26 people at Sandy Hook in 2012.

The suit is testing a novel strategy to circumvent broad federal protections for businesses whose product is used to commit a crime.  Congress granted gun companies industrywide immunity from blame when one of their products is used in a crime.  But the law, enacted in 2005, includes exceptions for instances of so-called “negligent entrustment,” in which a gun is carelessly given to a person posing a high risk of misusing it.  “Negligent entrustment” has often been argued in cases involving unlicensed or reckless drivers who cause injuries when they&#39;re driving someone else&#39;s vehicle.

Plaintiff lawyers representing the families of Sandy Hook victims argued that the firearm maker was “entrusting” its Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifles to the public at large, and the public was incapable of handling the “military-style” weapon Adam Lanza used.

A lower Connecticut state court dismissed the suit in 2016.  In that ruling, Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis rejected the plaintiffs argument that nonmilitary, nonpolice citizens were incapable of handling the type of weapon Adam Lanza used.  The court was unwilling to rule that “the general public lacks the ordinary prudence necessary to handle” such weapons, Judge Bellis wrote.

She also rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that Remington could be said to have “entrusted” the weapon to Adam Lanza.  “Based on the clear intent of Congress to narrowly define the ‘negligent entrustment’ exception, Adam Lanza’s use of the firearm is the only actionable use,” she wrote, and it was not the gun maker who directly entrusted him with it.

The judge in 2016 also rejected the plaintiffs’ attempt to slip their claims in under Connecticut’s consumer protection law, saying that law is limited to lawsuits where the plaintiff had some business relationship with the defendant, and rejected their product-liability claims, because the gun worked as intended.

But the plaintiffs appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court, and today won their case.  They argued that Remington erred by entrusting an untrained civilian public with a weapon “designed for maximizing fatalities on the battlefield”. It also asserts that the company used marketing slogans like “Consider your man card reissued,” that appealed specifically to disturbed young men like Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old Sandy Hook gunman.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs allege that Remington marketed its Bushmaster XM15-E2S directly at people like Adam Lanza, people whom the lawsuit describes as young men “obsessed with the military,” and “uninterested in hunting or target shooting.”

“Now, Remington may never have known Adam Lanza, but they had been courting him for years,” the plaintiff’s lawyer’s told the justices during arguments in Nov. 2017. “And the courtship between Remington and Adam Lanza is at the heart if this case.”

Today’s ruling only means that the lawsuit can proceed.  Whether the plaintiffs win their lawsuit is another matter entirely, and the U.S. Supreme Court could end up with the final say.  But the success of this approach so far will undoubtedly unnerve Second Amendment advocates.

SOURCES: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2019/03/14/court-rules-families-of-sandy-hook-shooting-victims-can-sue-gunmaker-remington-over-2012-attack/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fate-sandy-hook-lawsuit-against-gun-maker-could-be-decided-n820776
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/nyregion/remington-sandy-hook-shooting.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2016/10/14/connecticut-judge-dismisses-sandy-hook-massacre-lawsuit-against-remington/#542da0ab4fc6